Our Scholarship Program In Teosinte, El Salvador

       We began our scholarship program in Teosinte in 1994.  It was open to all youth who wished to study high school and university. The photo to the right is of our university students in 2003. The following is a report of what they are doing currently (although we have lost track of some).

Left to Right: 

Maria Herrera:  Maria opted not to graduate from university but did study a year or more, She is married with two children.

Esmeralda Villeda: Esmeralda studied business administration and is working in her field in San Salvador, the capital.

Our sholarship recipients shown left to right standing: Maria Herrera, Esmeralda Villeda, Monica Alas, Rosa Guardado, Maria Elena Cartagena, Otilia Guardado, Elena Noemi Alas, Alba Guardodo, Christina Avelar, Rubia Guardado, Guadalupe Cartagena. Kneeling in front: Rutilio Guardado Alas left, and Ventura Alas, right.

Otilia Guardado: Otilia is a teacher. Unfortunately, we have lost track of her.

Elena Noemy Alas: Elena Noemy has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. She has a full-time nursing position at a Community Clinic in a village on the way from Teosinte to Tejutla. She lives with her husband and her mother. After work, she is staff person in the convenience store she and her mother run.

Alba Guardado:  Alba graduated with her teaching credential and is a teacher.

Cristina Avelar: Cristina studied for a year at university, however, her circumstances were very difficult. She lost her mother when she was just a teen and had to take over the responsibility of running the house and caring for her younger siblings since her father worked long days in the corn and bean field just to provide food for the family year-round, hence further study at university became practically impossible.

Rubia Guardado:  Rubia graduated with her degree in early childhood education, but has had a hard time finding a full-time position. 

Guadalupe Cartagena:  Guadalupe studied university and graduated, however, after the death of her mother, she moved away from Teosinte thus we are not in contact with her.

Kneeling in front from left to right:

Rutilio Guardado Alas:   Rutilio graduated from law school and is working in human rights law in Chalatenango province. He is married with two children and has bought a modern, middle-class home. He has dedicated his life to defending the rights of the poorest of the poor.

Ventura Alas: Ventura is an elementary school teacher and has done administrative work in education as well. He received his teaching credential from the University of El Salvador, with our scholarship support, then on his own got his Master’s Degree in Education.  His first job teaching was in Los Naranios, a destitute village right at the Honduran border in northern Chalatenango province, about 25 miles north of Teosinte. Ventura dedicates his life to teaching poor communities to give them a fighting chance in life. He is passionate about education and is always pushing the educational system to improve the quality of what it delivers. He is married with two children, living in San Antonio Los Ranchos where he teaches, a town about an hour and a half by car from Teosinte. 

NOTE:   All the students who finished university with scholarship support have put off child-bearing until they were established in their professions, at ages 28-30 and have just one or two children.   Thus, higher education empowers youth of poor communities to enter the middle class and drastically decreases birth rate.  Also, all but two of the above university scholarship recipients have chosen to stay in El Salvador to work in their professions.